Fran Fraschilla was expecting boos even if he did not agree with them.

The former St. John’s coach was giving his commentary on Knicks draft pick Kostas Papanikolaou on Thursday night, but it was mostly drowned out by booing fans at the Prudential Center.

“They did the same thing for (Danilo) Gallinari, and he turned out to be pretty good,” Fraschilla told The Post on Friday.

But Fraschilla, who serves as ESPN’s international basketball expert, warned not to expect those type of immediate returns from Papanikolaou.

“I don’t know if he’ll ever be a starter, we are talking about the 48th pick now,” Fraschilla said. “We are not talking about the eighth pick, but if he decided to come over I’d be very surprised if he was not a rotation player because he’s a guy that fits (Knicks coach) Mike Woodson’s philosophy: He plays defense first. This kid is a junkyard dog. He’d have trouble guarding Kevin Durant or some of the elite scorers, but he’ll be able to be a high-energy guy that could play in the Knicks rotation in a couple of seasons.”

First, Papanikolaou has to come to the NBA. He has a $1 million buyout with his Greek team, Olympiakos, after this season. As he’s under contract, Papanikolaou can’t even play for the Knicks’ summer-league team next month.

“This is a 22-year-old that’s already played at a very high-level of basketball in high-pressure situations,” Fraschilla said. “He was one of the heroes of Olympiakos surprise Euro League championship this year. He did not miss a shot over the weekend: the EuroLeague Final Four is a lot like the NCAA Final Four, but played at a higher level. If the NBA is the major leagues, college is Double-A then the Euro League is the Triple-A.”

That will not do much to placate Knicks fans hoping that a recognizable name would be taken instead of EuroStash player they may or not see in their team’s uniform. But Fraschilla is confident that Papanikolaou would be handle the pressure of the NBA or New York.

“Pressure is defined a little differently in Europe: You have fans throwing hot coins at you, shooting off fireworks and riots taking place in the Greek League,” Fraschilla said. “It’s real pressure and this kid performed at a high level. He is a 6’8 small forward with good athleticism, he plays with an extremely high amount of energy, does a lot of dirty work, defends, gets to the rim and has a lot of tangible qualities that should some day make him a solid NBA player.”

Fraschilla compared Papanikolaou to former Spurs forward Bruce Bowen, who was an integral part of three of San Antonio’s NBA titles. But for Papanikolaou to reach that level he has to improve his shot.

“Although he did not miss a shot in the Euro League semifinals or finals, he is not a great outside shooter,” Fraschilla said. “That’s an area he could really improve on, but for the 48th pick he is a great value pick for the Knicks.”